Oakland Raiders shut out Kansas City Chiefs 15-0

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Oakland Raiders' Marcel Reece (45) has a gain on the play as a penalty is called on Kansas City Chiefs' Jalil Brown (30) on the play in the first quarter on Sunday, Dec. 16, 2012, at O.co Coliseum in Oakland, Calif. (Susan Tripp Pollard/staff)

Oakland Raiders' Denarius Moore catches but can't keep the pass in the second quarter as Kansas City Chiefs' Javier Arenas covers him on the play on Sunday, Dec. 16, 2012, at O.co Coliseum in Oakland, Calif. (Susan Tripp Pollard/staff)

Oakland Raiders' starting quarterback Carson Palmer (3) throws against the Kansas City Chiefs in the second quarter at the O.co Coliseum in Oakland, Calif., on Sunday, Dec. 16, 2012. (Nhat V. Meyer/Staff)

OAKLAND — After six straight losses, the Raiders weren’t about to give short shrift to a 15-0 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs.

Not when their much-maligned defense posted the first shutout in 10 years Sunday at O.co Coliseum.

Not when their equally maligned running game rushed for a season-high 203 yards on 45 carries, with Darren McFadden gaining 110 yards on 30 attempts and Mike Goodson adding 89 on 13 tries. The Chiefs rushed for 10 yards on 10 carries.

Sebastian Janikowski did all the scoring for the Raiders, kicking field goals of 20, 50, 57, 30 and 41 yards as the offense played it safe and let the game dictate the strategy.

This was a game decided at the line of scrimmage, with the Raiders pushing the Chiefs around on both sides of the ball and walking off their home field for the last time this season feeling good for a change.

“I felt up front we did a nice job,” Raiders coach Dennis Allen said. “I thought we were able to run the ball effectively. We were able to control time of possession, which I think was critical to our defense playing as well as it did.”

The Raiders improved to 4-10, the Chiefs fell to 2-12, and the game deservedly had little or no national attention.

Not that the Raiders cared in the least. They came in having given up the most points in the NFL and pitched a shutout — the Raiders’ first since they beat the Chiefs 24-0 in the 2002 regular-season finale.

“It felt really, really good, no matter who the opponent is,” linebacker Philip Wheeler said. “It’s great to hold a team to zero and minimal rushing yards and just dominate like that.”

It was hard to reconcile a defense that gave up 119 yards in total offense, limited the Chiefs to 1 for 12 in third-down conversions and sacked quarterback Brady Quinn four times with the same one that has given up yardage and points in big clusters all season.

The Raiders had the ball for a season-high 40 minutes, 6 seconds to 19:54 for the Chiefs, who were in third-and-long all day and didn’t pick up their initial first down until just under six minutes were left in the third quarter.

“Couldn’t run the ball, couldn’t throw the ball, got in the red zone and couldn’t get any points,” Chiefs coach Romeo Crennel said. “Defensively we tried to hang in there, but we missed too many tackles and on third down were unable to get off the field.”

Of the Chiefs’ 11 offensive possessions, they went three-and-out seven straight times and four-and-out twice in the fourth quarter when they were forced to go for first downs.

There wasn’t much in the way of explosive offense for the Raiders, just a steady drumbeat of running plays designed to slowly put a stranglehold on the game.

It was the first time this season the Raiders had more rushing yards than passing yards, with Carson Palmer completing 18 of 29 passes for 182 yards and no gain longer than 19 yards.

While Allen and Palmer would have liked to see a few touchdowns, they weren’t about to quibble with the play-calling or end result after not having won a game since they last played the Chiefs on Oct. 28.

“I don’t have a problem with the play-calling at all,” Allen said. “We did the things we had to do to win a football game, and that’s what we were able to do.”

Palmer, who woke up with flu-like symptoms and was under the weather during the game, was more than happy to let the defense handle things.

“Obviously you want to get in the end zone, but you could just tell the flow of the game we just needed to keep preserving the time of possession, continue to run the ball and keep the clock going,” he said. “We had a pretty good feel that the defense was going to do what they did.”

If there was a critical sequence in the game, it came at the end of the first half.

After Janikowski missed a 51-yard field goal attempt, the Raiders looked to be headed into the half up 6-0 — a one-score game.

The Chiefs got the ball with 1:35 to play and quickly went three and out, burning only 32 seconds.

It gave the Raiders enough time for Palmer to complete passes of 9 and 15 yards to Rod Streater, 7-yard passes to McFadden and Denarius Moore and a 14-yard strike to Brandon Myers to put Janikowski in position for a 57-yard field goal at the gun.

“To be able to get up nine points with the way our defense was really playing, I thought that was really big,” Allen said.

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